CMST 1A03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Commodification, Brand Equity, Semiotics

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: CMST 1A03
• Professor: Christine Quail

Document Summary

The act of putting ideas into words, visuals, audio or any other medium of communication: simplifies and interprets the object or even being described, receiver must decode or interpret the communication to understand the idea. Note: the word text is used to refer to any medium. Ferdinand de saussure, 1916 linguist that discovered how signed were meaningful. Signifier- the thing we see, hear, feel. Arbitrary relationship between sound of word and it"s sign. Polysemy: having many meanings: texts are polysomic- makes them open to interpretation. Intertextuality: the meaning we made of one text depend on the meanings we have drawn from other signs we already know: texts meanings are made intertextually and by combining multiple signs. Sometimes meaning cannot be solidified: numerous ways of representing an object, no necessary correspondence between meanings the sinter made, and meanings the receiver made, difference media have different representational systems.